After blackmailing EA failed, hackers leaked its 780GB source code, including FIFA 21

According to foreign media reports, a group of hackers used the stolen EA company source code data to extort the stolen data completely on the underground hacker forum and BT website. According to the dumped copy, the data contained "FIFA 21" football. The source code of the game and the tools that support the company's server-side services.

The hacker leaked 751GB of compressed EA data containing the source code of "FIFA 21". EA stated that the stolen data did not contain player data, and the data leaked this week confirmed this.

In an interview, the hacker claimed to have gained access to data after purchasing an authentication cookie for EA's internal Slack channel from a dark web market called Genesis.

The hackers stated that they used authentication cookies to imitate the logged-in EA employee account and access EA’s Slack channel, and then tricked EA IT support staff to grant them access to the company’s internal network, thereby downloading it from the company’s internal code base More than 780GB of source code has been added.

The existence of the leak was first disclosed on June 10, when hackers posted a post on an underground hacker forum claiming that they had EA data and they were willing to sell the data for $28 million.

Although the hackers initially hoped to make a lot of money from it, because most of the stolen data was source code, they could not find any buyers in the underground market, because it had no value to other cybercrime groups, and most of the crimes What the group wants more is user personal data and property data.

After unable to find the buyer, the hacker tried to blackmail EA, asking the company to pay an undisclosed amount to avoid data leakage on the Internet.

Initially, the hackers released a 1.3GB FIFA source code cache on July 14. After two weeks, they leaked all the data after EA refused to blackmail.

EA confirmed in a statement that it "has not accessed any player data" during the hacking, and the company believes that "there is no reason to believe that there is any risk to player privacy."

An EA spokesperson said in an interview:

"After the incident, we have made safety improvements, and it is not expected to have an impact on our games or business."

​"As part of the ongoing criminal investigation, we are actively cooperating with law enforcement officials and other experts."

The following is a screenshot of part of the leaked data: